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"We Want War"

Kirt Poovey December 3 2003

In the weeks and months leading up to March 20, 2003, Iraq worked diligently behind the scenes to prevent war. They went to the extreme measure of inviting the CIA and American troops to Iraqi soil to look for the WMDs that the Iraqi government said they didn't have.

The Bush administration rebuffed every offer short of abdication of Saddam Hussein.

The official line from Washington was, "Tell them that we will see them in Baghdad." Admitting that they had already engaged in separate contacts with Baghdad, CIA officials turned down last-minute efforts to acquiesce to US demands. The question is why did they not try to prevent Iraqi and US bloodshed?

It appears that the Bush administration sought to make an example of Iraq to the other Middle East nations. Having a nation let your soldiers come in peacefully does not send a strong enough message to others. That would only indicate Iraq's weakness and not the United States' military strength. Washington officials claimed that the people in the Iraqi government that were purposing the conditions were not "legitimate" or high enough in the government to guarantee or fulfill on their promises. However, events prove otherwise.

On March 19th the US military launched a pre-emptive aerial strike against a site that Saddam Hussein and his top echelon were believed to inhabit. The source of this information was never publicly disclosed. Throughout the Iraqi War it seemed that someone close to Saddam was publishing his whereabouts. The American forces, however, were always a few minutes behind.

On April 7th, a villa in Baghdad's Al-Mansur neighborhood was bombed. Saddam had fled a short fifteen minutes earlier. Saddam was meeting with Izzat Ibrahim al-Durri, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, Defense Minister Sultan Hashem, and Intelligence Chief Tahir Jalil al-Habbush al-Takriti (Tahir Jalil Habbush in our earlier story). Habbush is one of the officials that Imad Hage, a Maronite Christian and Lebanese-American businessman, met with in February.

Habbush offered to "open everything" to the Americans. Habbush indicated to Hage that Iraq had tried talking to the Bush administration through other means. One such meeting confirmed by American officials was in Rome between the CIA and representatives of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

At the April 7th meeting in Iraq, Izzat Ibrahim and Sultan Hashim were already waiting for Saddam and the others. Saddam arrived and was followed by Taha Yassin Ramadan. Saddam used his nephews as messengers to personally deliver information to his close aides. When Saddam did not see Tahir, he inquired of a nephew if Tahir had been informed. When the nephew replied that he had been notified, Saddam left immediately on foot.

"Saddam had been suspicious of Tahir Habbush since the bombardments on March 19 and that is why his absence from the meeting was proof of his treachery," according to a former official in the Iraqi government. In an article by Independent News Media, the source and two other former Iraqi officials confirmed that Saddam gave orders "to arrest and execute if necessary" Tahir Habbush, and appointed Hossam Mohammad Amin as his replacement. Tahir was not the only conspirator with the US forces. Hussein Rashid al-Takrit, the director of Security at the defense ministry, and his son Ali, head of the office of Saddam's younger son, Qusay, issued instructions which proved beneficial to American forces. "Military instructions given by Hussein Rashid had to be counter-signed by Qusay in order to take effect," said one of the sources, "but towards the end Ali countersigned his father's instructions on behalf of Saddam's son."

Habbush was evacuated by US forces after they entered Baghdad as where other members of Hussein's regime who collaborated with and helped the Americans during the war. Habbush was obviously in contact with the CIA (by their own admission) before the war and could have provided a non-military way to search for and remove any WMDs. He also was in contact during the war and had a scheduled meeting with Robert Baer, a former CIA official, but the house they were to meet in was bombed by US planes with six precision-guided bombs two days before the meeting was to happen.

Habbush, one of Saddam's top four inner circle advisors claimed before the war that Iraq had no WMDs. Now under the CIA's protection, if he knew where there were any WMDs (and he would since he was in charge of Iraqi intelligence and was one of Saddam's most trusted aides), he could easily lead our forces to them.

Desperate messages from the Iraqi regime were sent through Syrian intelligence; French, German, and Russian diplomatic channels; retired CIA officials, and even a Lebanese-American businessman. In December 2002, Vincent Cannistraro, the former head of the CIA's counter-terrorism unit, was approached by a representative of Tahir Habbush. According to Cannistraro, the Iraqis were prepared to dispel any links to September 11th and prove that they had no WMDs.

Cannistraro said, "I reported the conversation to senior levels of the state department and I was told to stand aside and they would handle it." They did. The Iraqi offer was "killed" by the Bush administration.

The Bush administration did not want a peaceful resolution. They wanted war - and they got it. They were in contact with top level Iraqi officials before the war, and used them during the war to try to eliminate Saddam Hussein. Now we have a destroyed country that will cost US taxpayers hundreds of billions to repair. Thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives. In the US, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters have lost loved ones to a needless war; and a large number of servicemen have lost legs, arms, or been severely wounded. Mr. Bush, you got your war, but it wasn't your daughters who were on the front lines. Too bad, maybe you would have opted for a peaceful solution.